Monday Bolts – 2.4.13

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com on an imaginary Offensive Player of the Year award: “Durant is unquestionably the best scorer in the league. He’s averaging 29.6 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the field, 41 percent from three and 90 percent from the free throw line, putting him on track to be the first scoring leader in history to average 50-40-90 in a season. If we examine some of the scorer-defining play sets through Synergy, though, there are some interesting results. Durant is actually a better post scorer than you’d expect, as he has transformed his game this season. He’s second among all post scorers with 100 possessions behind Kobe Bryant.”

Tom Ziller of SB Nation on assets and when to deal them: “So perhaps the lesson here isn’t that you should not trade your cheap blue chippers, but that you should leverage their cost-effective production for 1-3 years, let the hype build as everyone realizes what a good deal they are and then flip them … unless, of course, they have that star potential. Bradley and Bledsoe might. Parsons, Sullinger, Seraphin and Vasquez likely do not. Faried is so ridiculously productive that trading him would be too risky. In the end, the decisions need to be weighed like any other, and good front offices will do this better. But the lesson of Parsons is to use those non-lottery picks instead of selling them off, and to look for players who can be productive early, and to keep a reasonable mind about their long-term potential and trade value.”

KD tweets: “To my bro @NBowman53 I know what it feels like, you made all of us back home proud as hell! You Got the heart of a champ!! Keep workin:

Jason Gallagher of BallerBall on Paranormal Activity and Kendrick Perkins: “Yeesh. Wow. It’s terrifying, I know. I’ve never seen it on a basketball court before. I was shivering to my very soul. I was so shaken to the point where – I couldn’t do the dishes that my wife had requested of me. I just couldn’t. I was too… broken. Even though there were several incredible performances in that game – this image is what I took away from that night. So that was my night. PA4 left me bored and OKC/CLE left me disturbed for life. What’s even worse is that both events have blended together to make one single memory that I just can’t shake.”

KD and Dirk are both questionable tonight.

Darnell Mayberry on OKC’s current road issue: “That’s why these current road issues are significant in the short term. In the long run, the Thunder will have to win on the road at some point to secure the title. Though the Thunder successfully stole home-court advantage from San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals, the three straight losses at Miami in the championship round showed just how critical it is to maintain consistency away from home. One reason for optimism even in spite of the alarming defensive numbers is the Thunder has lost its past four road games by an average of 5.5 points, a clear sign that games are still competitive and the team has had a chance to win in crunch time.”

Mayberry on Saturday’s game: “Having said that, here’s the problem I had with Brooks not putting Sefolosha in and sliding Westbrook over. Brooks said one thing after the game but played his cards differently during it. For example. “We scored enough points to win,” Brooks said. “When you give up 115, and normally we only give up in the mid-90s, that’s not our game. We definitely can win playing an up-and-down game, but we are a defensive team and we didn’t play good enough defense tonight. That’s unacceptable.” Ahem, so why is the best perimeter defender on the bench for the final 10 minutes????”